Coming soon to a (computer) screen near you…..the Mozilla Firefox browser will — by default — protect users by blocking Online tracking while also offering a clear set of controls to give users “more choice over what information they share with Sites.”
Announcing this on its blog, Mozilla said it would release a set of features to support its latest move in the war against tracking. This, it announced, was to support users & “give them a voice”.
Here they are:
Improving page load performance:
Online tracking slows down the Web. For users on slower networks the effect can be even worse.
The new feature in Firefox Nightly blocks trackers that slow down page loads. This will be tested using a shield study in September, & if it does well, will be used to start blocking slow-loading trackers by default in Firefox 63.
Removing cross-site tracking:
In the physical world, users wouldn’t expect 100s of vendors to follow them from store to store, spying on the products they look at or purchase. Users have the same expectations of privacy on the Web, yet in reality, they are tracked Online wherever they go.
In order to help give users the private Web browsing experience, cookies will be stripped & storage access from 3rd-party tracking Content will be blocked. Again, this will be tested with some of beta users in September, & implemented if it works out fine.
Mitigating harmful practices:
Deceptive practices that invisibly collect identifiable user information or degrade user experience are becoming more common. For example, some trackers fingerprint users — a technique that allows them to invisibly identify users by their device properties, which users are unable to control. Other Sites have deployed cryptomining scripts that silently mine cryptocurrencies on the user’s device. Practices like these make the Web a more hostile place to be. Future versions of Firefox will block these practices by default.
Image Credit: Mozilla
